


Generations 01

by Fier



Series: Generations [1]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Abduction, Abduction Arc (X-Files), Angst, Canon Compliant, Coma, During Canon, Episode: s02e08 One Breath, F/M, Heart-to-Heart, Hurt/Comfort, Near Death Experiences, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25624444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fier/pseuds/Fier
Summary: While sitting with Dana in the hospital Mulder has a conversation with Mrs. Scully in which she makes some painful revelations and causes him to think about family values in a way he never did before.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully, Margaret Scully/Walter Skinner
Series: Generations [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1857445
Kudos: 18





	Generations 01

**Author's Note:**

> **Title** : Generations  
>  **Author** : Macspooky  
>  **Series** : Generations  
>  **Date** : July 1995  
>  **Rated** : R  
>  **Category** : SR  
>  **Spoilers** : One Breath  
>  **Keywords** : Mulder/Scully romance.
> 
> Here is the first of my **Generations** series.
> 
> This story takes place during One Breath, and of course predates my other story "A Wonderful Day." It is rather maudlin, and it might a bit difficult for those who aren't parents to understand what Margaret Scully went through, the exhaustion, the fear, the dismay at finding herself pregnant yet again. I thought a conversation with a member of the younger generation might be a good way to expose Scully's background a little more. Of course, the X-Files doesn't belong to me.
> 
> It belongs to Chris Carter, Fox, and I think something called Ten Thirteen Inc. Thanks for "lending" it to me for awhile to let me practice writing with. No theft is intended. Any of my ideas are yours if you want them, although I don't know why you would. This little exercise is just more fun in cyberspace with cyber friends. It is rated G. Sorry folks. No one gets killed and nothing gets blown up. It's just a quiet little story about a mother who is probably going to lose her daughter, and a man on the verge of losing the only person he's ever really loved besides his little sister. Also, for all you nurses out there. You are wonderful! Remember, Mulder was not in a great mental state, and to him, no one, but no one, was really good enough to take care of Scully.

Fox Mulder sat across from Walter Skinner. He forced himself to remain impassive. It was one of the most difficult things he had ever done in his life. He wanted to lash out at the man, to scream at him to stop being a goddamn bureaucrat and start being a human being.

Scully was in the hospital, and she was dying. He had to catch the people who had hurt her, and when he wasn't doing that, he had to be with her. He was her partner. He was her friend. She needed people to be with her all the time to help her pull through.

"In short Mulder," snapped Skinner, "if you miss any more time at work, I am going to see that you are censured. You'll get jobs that make the sewers of Newark look like a great place to work. And, Mulder, if I get one more call from that hospital that you've been down there making a scene, I swear, I will do whatever it takes to have you fired. Got it."

"Yes ,Sir," he replied. He looked pointedly at his watch. "No more scenes, Sir. No more missed time."

"Then get the hell out of here and go visit Scully," the man said not unkindly. He didn't always like to do what he had to do. He understood what Mulder was going through better than most. He had learned when he had lost his beloved wife to cancer, what it meant to sit back and watch someone you cared about slip away, and Mulder did care about Scully. Skinner made it a point to listen to gossip. He didn't believe they had ever slept together. They both valued their careers too much to have been that stupid.

They did, however, love each other. Of that he was certain. Whoever had been responsible for Scully's abduction had made a bad mistake. That had not been the way to calm Mulder down and control him. Skinner knew him better, just as he knew that Mulder was going to take off when he damn well pleased and that he had probably marched himself right down to the hospital prepared to aggravate the staff just as soon as he had left the office in spite of his polite," Yes Sir."

Mulder promised himself he would be good. He would not snap at Melissa if she was there, even if he did find her a total lame brain.

He wouldn't pick on the hospital staff. He wouldn't make a scene no matter what. The only ones he had any respect for down there were Mrs. Adams, the African American nurse who looked at him daggers, but who really cared about her patients, and nurse Owens who didn't appear to work on the floor, but who would always whisper words of encouragement in Dana's ear before seeming to fade into no where when he entered, as though she were some sort of spirit being instead of a wonderful nurse. Maybe they were one in the same thing. Wonderful nurses didn't seem that common from Mulder's current perspective. Dr. Daly, he couldn't stand. Lately he couldn't stand anyone really, including himself, more himself than anyone else.

The moment he got to her room, he knew there was a problem, and all his resolve went right out the door. Nurse Adams wasn't there, and he discovered his partner lying in her own wastes and realized that she had been for some time. He went ballistic. Dr. Daly came in cursing because FBI Agent Mulder was the last damn person he wanted to deal with. FBI Agent Mulder was a pain in the ass and certifiable as well. He had visions of straight jackets as he approached the man.

"I'm not going to have this, Daly," Mulder raged. "If you can't take care of her, then I will. I'll hire private nurses for her. I'll care for her myself if I have to, but she isn't going to lie here like this. Do you hear me, Daly? Am I making myself clear?"

"If you don't calm down, Agent Mulder, security is going to..."

"Let's see them try..."

Margaret Scully was exhausted. She heard the exchange even before she saw the scene, Fox with the older, shorter doctor pinned to the wall, the nurses cowering, and security ready to haul him out the door...again.

"Not another problem," she pleaded.

"I'm taking care of the problem, Mrs. Scully," he said backing away from Daly, forcing himself to calm down now that Mrs. Scully was there.

"Mr. Mulder," said Dr. Daly, "you are right and I'm sorry. We've been really short staffed today. It's no excuse I realize. I promise it won't happen again."

Dr. Daly wasn't totally without sympathy. He didn't like to see the patients get poor care, but sometimes things happened.

Unfortunately, Dana Scully had been assigned to him, therefor Fox Mulder had happened to him. He sighed. He didn't think he'd ever seen a man more in love. It was probably the only thing that kept him from having Mulder arrested if for no other reason than he was alive at this point. He was very sick of Fox Mulder, who wasn't even related to his patient.

"I know it won't, Daly," he snapped.

He turned to the head nurse. "If you have a problem like this again, you call me. Do I make myself clear? If I ever...ever walk in the door and find her like this again...You all act as though she were dead...She isn't dead..." his voice started to break, and he walked off to his partner's cubicle.

"What's wrong now, Fox?" asked Margaret following him. She had come to love him dearly but, there were times...times when she got tired of him fighting her every decision, times like now when her head was pounding...but he cared about Dana so much. How many men would spend every available moment with a comatose woman... "No." she thought, "He's a good man." It didn't take her long to realize what the problem was, the reason he was so angry. She suddenly stopped being annoyed with him for creating another scene. Her poor daughter.

Maybe she should have come earlier, but her head wouldn't stop aching, and she hadn't been able to stop thinking about Bill all day.

A nurse brought water, soap and clean cloth.

"I'll bath my daughter," said Margaret quietly. "I know you have all been busy today."

"I'm really sorry, Mrs. Scully. The place just doesn't run as well without Mrs Adams and we've three other nurses out sick."

"Go on, but next time have someone call me okay?"

"Okay," she glared at Mulder and left.

"Fox, would you get me a cup of coffee while I take care of her?

I'd really appreciate it."

"Sure, Mrs. Scully, anything," he said. Maybe he had been hard on them but...damn it...

* * *

He returned with the coffee a few minutes later and was prepared to leave feeling embarrassed and knowing he was in trouble. He'd probably overstepped his bounds yet again. He wasn't family. He was no one. Just a work partner. He hoped he hadn't made it harder for Mrs. Scully, yet damn them, they hadn't done what they were supposed to do.

"Sit with me awhile Fox. Please." She swallowed two aspirin and stroked her daughter's red hair.

"Okay."

"I feel so guilty," she said suddenly. "Oh God, this was the child I didn't want and now to lose her like this..."

Fox wanted to yell at her that she shouldn't say such things, that Dana could hear her, but he kept his silence. The woman was anguished. He understood anguish all too well.

"I know that sounds terrible, Fox," said the older woman pulling herself together, "but you have to understand, it was the early 60's and we were Catholic. I probably would have taken the pill and just gone to confession, but Bill, Bill was very religious and wouldn't hear of it. I had Bill Jr. nine months after I got married. I did something unusual for then. I nursed him. It kept me safe for a year and a half. Bill was about 2 1/2 when Melissa was born. I liked where I was living. I had lots of friends. I had my little boy and my baby girl, and except for Bill being gone so much, my life was perfect."

"What does that have to do with Dana?" he asked curious in spite of himself.

It was difficult for him to understand the Catholic thing. Dana had fallen away from it, had explained that she was tired of the guilt trip that came with it. He didn't quite get it. Of course, his family was not big on Catholics. His father had hated John F.

Kennedy, believed, like his father before him, that his running for office was a plot by the Vatican to take over the country. No, Irish Catholics were not really high on the list of people William Samuel Mulder liked. "What a ridiculous conspiracy theory!" Mulder thought with a part of his mind while listening the Dana's mother. He was glad HE didn't think of stupid things like that to worry about. Thank God he hadn't taken after his Dad.

"Bill came home the day that Melissa was born. He was a wonderful wonderful man, and I loved him so much Fox." Her eyes teared over. She struggled not to cry."During all the time we were married I don't think he was ever unfaithful to me, but he was a man, he'd been out to sea. He had needs, and I did love him. I found out I was pregnant again when I went back for my six week checkup. Irish twins."

She smiled a little at that. "Dana was a sickly colicky baby, always crying, always at the clinic with a fever and ear infections," she continued. "I spent her first six months frantic that I'd lose her and wishing that I would. What a horrible thing for a mother to say."

Fox agreed, but as a psychologist, he had been trained to listen non-judgmentally, and she needed to talk, so he did.

"Of course, she got over her colic and her little personality began to emerge. I fell in love with my little girl then. She was so different from the others, quiet, sensitive. Also, my mother came from Ireland to help out and put things in perspective for me. Bill adored Dana... He adored all his children, but Dana was kind of special. I don't know if you can understand this concept. It's essentially alien to your generation, but Dana was his 'good' girl."

"What do you mean good? None of your children are bad," he asked surprised.

"Of course not." She smiled. "But Dana was the one Bill was going to walk down the aisle in a white dress. Dana was the one who was going to deserve to wear the white dress, you know, be a virgin. It broke his heart when she started dating that bastard Jack Willis."

"I don't know, Mrs. Scully. It sounds gruesome to me, the entire concept of giving your daughter to another man as though she were a piece of property, and the concept that she shouldn't have been "used" as though making love was a sin..." He shuddered. He'd be in hell for sure for what he had done with Phoebe. Worse yet, Phoebe would be there with him.

"It is," she smiled slightly, "when you're Catholic, unless you're married. Even then there are constraints. Bill never thought of his daughter's like property though. He thought he would be passing her on to the next stage of life as God has ordained, in the same way that my Da gave me to him, not as property, but as a beloved child. He was so proud when she went to medical school. She would be a healer, a good thing in God's eyes."

"What about Melissa?"

In spite of herself Mrs. Scully laughed. "I think he despaired of Melissa early on. He loved her, called her Kitten. She rebelled against everything he valued at a very young age, got into the punk scene, hated Catholic school. It all came to a head when she was 16 and dyed her hair green. It's a good thing it was a wash out dye because Bill would have gotten it out whether it was or wasn't. He stuck her over the tub we used to bath the dog in, turned the garden hose on her, and didn't stop washing until her hair was red again. It was November. Melissa calmed down a lot after that little episode. Still, as soon as she got into college, she moved in with a male roommate just to aggravate him. Dana had more sense. She got a female roommate and kept her love life, if she had one, to herself."

"Sounds like the generation gap to me."

"Well, thank God he was spared this," she sighed. "His little Starbuck. Please don't judge me too harshly, Fox."

"Mrs. Scully, you sound human to me. People get tired, and three babies in three years can't be easy. Sleep deprivation does awful things to people. Bill sounds like he was a father worthy of respect even if his views were...old fashioned. Dana knew he always loved her."

"I have a feeling you know about sleep deprivation, Fox, and sometimes those old fashioned values are not a bad thing. He believed in them, but more importantly, he lived them. They held the family together through difficult times. He was a strong man, Fox."

He just nodded and said nothing wondering where this woman found her strength. His mother would have fallen apart long ago. He wished his dad had lived with those kind of values. He could take old fashioned, if old fashioned meant you were loved.

"The one time Bill met you, Fox, he really liked you. I remember how you stopped by to pick up a file. Dana asked you to stay for dinner, but you were too shy. Later when we were driving home, Bill said he felt better about Dana working for the FBI. He knew you would always take care of her."

"Well, I didn't do a very good job did I?" he asked bitterly.

"Fox, what happened was not your fault," she said. "You've got to stop blaming yourself." She didn't tell him what else Bill had said, that it was good to have met the man Dana was going to marry one day. She remembered she had laughed at him. "Come on, Bill Scully, how can you know that?" "I just do Meg. It's something in the way he looks at her, like my Starbuck would be the most beautiful girl in the world if only he could stand her. He doesn't know it yet, Meg, but he's hooked, just like I was after I finally decided I could stand you. As soon as Starbuck stops thinking he's a jerk, its' going to be love." He had laughed. They had laughed, remembering how they had detested each other when they first met. That night Bill had died.

Suddenly, Margaret couldn't help it. The tears started to flow. Now Dana would never marry him. There would never be any grandchildren with dark hair and hazel eyes. She would never get to be Mrs. Fox Mulder, well Dr. Mulder...She would never know what it was like to make love to a man and have it be magic, because one thing Meg did know, with Jack Willis, it hadn't been magic. There would be no future for her little girl.

"I can't take anymore," said Mrs. Scully. "I keep praying for a miracle, but I have no faith that it's going to happen, no more faith in miracles since Bill died. I need it to end. I need to know she isn't suffering...I need to know she's with her daddy."

Fox slipped his arms around her and let her weep for a minute.

"She isn't going to die, Mrs. Scully," he whispered. "She just isn't." He would have liked to weep himself, but sometimes a man needed to be a man, and right now Margaret Scully needed someone to lean on for a moment.

"Thank you, Fox," she said pulling away, "Thank you for listening. Thank you for being there. I heard what you said about taking care of her yourself...Not too many men...I better go. This headache is making me maudlin." She turned to Dana. "Goodnight, baby girl. Please wake up tomorrow morning. We all miss you." She turned away and left.

When she had gone, Fox looked down at her pale face. Her physical being was so lovely. He took her hand for a minute. It felt warm and alive. He hoped that Dana was there somewhere. He was sorry he hadn't stayed to dinner that time and gotten to know Bill Scully better. At the time he had barely been able to tolerate having a partner, non the less having to deal with that partner's family.

"Make what I told your mother true, Dana Scully," he whispered softly, "Don't die. Don't make a liar out of me. I couldn't bear to face your family at your funeral. Please please wake up tomorrow."

He released her hand. It was time to go. He pulled the sheet up over her a little further, brushed the hair from her forehead gently and left to go home to his empty life.


End file.
